Well, the slUT game is upon us.  Unfortunately, I’m going to have to keep this post short and sweet, because I’m away on business this week, but I will be watching the game, and hoping that the Tide can pull off a win this weekend.  I don’t think it’ll happen, though.  slUT wins, 21-15.

Expect our offense to look a lot better tomorrow against the Blue Devils.  Key words in that sentence: ‘Blue’ and ‘Devils’.  If we were playing anyone from the SEC other than Mississippi State, that would not be as true.  ‘Bama needs work, and a lot of it, specifically in the coaching and red zone offense areas.  Let’s get some good practice in against Duke, guys, next week will be tougher.  Bama wins, 35-10.

Hello, fellow ‘Bama fans.  Work has been keeping me from being able to keep up with the Tide as much as I would like to this season, which is really rough with this being the first season in a long while that I’ve been away from Alabama and the Crimson Tide.  However, I’ve recently found a local alumni chapter, and will be joining shortly, after my application is approved.  I very much miss seeing games live and in person.  Hopefully in the near future I’ll have an opportunity to attend one.

Now that I’ve calmed down a little bit from last week’s retarded loss to Arkansas, I’ve been able to think ahead to this weekend, and the Florida game.  I remember a few years ago, shortly after another retarded loss (that time to Louisiana Tech), that we were going down to Gainesville to play the Gators.  Everyone remembers what happened that day, and how the kicking game very much affected the outcome of the game.  Unfortunately, I think we’ve got a chance for the kicking game to affect the outcome of this game as well.  I feel that we have a very good chance to win this game, but I think we’ll see again this weekend how our coaches are hurting us.  Bama loses in a heartbreaker, 21-17.

First off, thank you Cheap Seats for posting for me on Friday.  When I watched the Arkansas game this weekend, I kept being reminded of that Beatles song, “Help!”.  Alabama needs this, and we need it bad.  The showing that we put on against Arkansas was not entirely bad, but when push comes to shove, it was a loss that could’ve, and should’ve, been avoided.  Here’s what I thought about the game (hugely compressed).

John Parker Wilson looked good overall.  He still makes some rookie mistakes every game, but these are becoming few and far between.  Keith Brown and DJ Hall both had some nice plays.  We’ll be watching Brown, for sure, on Sundays in a few years.  The offensive line played decent, and opened up some holes that weren’t used.  On that note, something has to be done about Kenneth Darby.  I don’t know what is going on with him, but whether it be injury or what, he should not be used as much as he was in the Arkansas game.  I know that Darby is a great back, but something is holding him back right now, and it’s hurting the team.  Either Ken or the coaches need to fix this, and fast. 

I don’t know what’s up with Leigh Tiffin, but I hope that he spends the whole week kicking field goals if he is going to continue to be the placekicker for Alabama.  Overall, the Arkansas game should have been won.  It comes down to one thing that has been holding this team back for the past year or so: coaching.  Dave Rader must go.

Cheap Seats here. Work has called Red Bama Hat away from his usual post. However he called me and asked if I would post for him. This is what he would like to relay:

I realize some folks were upset with my pick of the Hogs over the Tide. My reasoning for this is very simple: our offense is not clicking well enough right now to win a SEC game on the road.  Hopefully I am wrong on my thinking, but Bama has had 3 games now on which to improve week to week on offense and I just haven’t seen that much improvement. Our running game still lacks the type of firepower it had last year. Hopefully in the Arkansas game it will show up and I can write next week about how wrong I was. However, I have to stay with my pick. The Hogs will win a close one:  Arkansas 17 Alabama 14.

Louisiana-Monroe… let’s see, I don’t know a single thing about their school or their football team.  This game will be nothing more than the title of this post… practice.  Which is what Alabama needs.  We need some work badly.  A lot of people are claiming this game for a blowout, but I just don’t see that happening.  Unless an entirely different team shows up than did the first two games, you won’t see a huge difference between the two scores.  It’ll still look better than Vandy, though.  Bama wins this one 21-7.

Well, I have to say, I wasn’t very surprised with the Vanderbilt game.  Here in this space last week, I wrote that the game might not be very pretty if our offense didn’t show up.  Well, unfortunately, I was right.  The offense looked about as well as could be expected at first, but we seemed to be doing the exact same things that have hounded us for the past few years, except this time without much of a running game. 

We didn’t have too much trouble moving the ball down the field, until we got inside the red zone.  Then, like last year and years before, we had problems punching it in.  Two costly turnovers (the fumble by Castille and that fake field goal) inside the red zone kept the score of this game from looking like it should’ve.  Darby’s dismal numbers didn’t help much, but on the bright side, Jimmy Johns is looking really good.  I know it’s early in the season, but we’ve got some work to do before the road games.  Get to it, guys.

Unfortunately, as I mentioned in my post last week, I didn’t get to watch or listen to the game last week, which is why there was no post from me on Monday breaking down what I thought of the game.  If you really want to torture an Alabama fan, tell him the first game of the season is on and there’s no way he can keep up with it.  It’s comparable to Chinese water torture.  Thanks to Cheap Seats for keeping me up-to-date with the score.

Tomorrow Vanderbilt rolls into town, and once again I may/may not be able to watch the game.  I’m switching to satellite television next week.  Cable companies are the devil.  Vanderbilt has no Jay Cutler, so ‘Bama shouldn’t have much of a problem with the ‘Dores offense.  It remains to be seen whether our own will show up or not. ‘Bama wins this one, 21-9.

The Tideblog.com Fantasy Football League has kicked off, as the first NFL game took place last night.  We’ll see on Monday how the games will turn out.  Have a great weekend, and Roll Tide!

Finally, the college football season is underway.  It’s been too long, football…. I’ve missed you greatly.

With the first Alabama game of the season coming up tomorrow, speculations are running rampant about how well ‘Bama has prepared, and if we’ll be able to do the job come Saturday at 6.  I, for one, think we’ll surprise a lot of our detractors.  When watching the South Carolina - Mississippi State game, I was reminded of how bad some teams look when during that first game.  The first game is generally full of sloppy play, penalties, and mistakes.  Try to keep this in mind, as we’ll be sure to see plenty of this in Tuscaloosa tomorrow.  I’m thinking ‘Bama 21 - Hawaii 17.

Unfortunately, I will neither be attending the Hawaii game, nor will I be able to watch the game on TV.  This is because, up here in North Carolina, the digital cable provider does not carry ESPN GamePlan, and will not be carrying the game on pay-per-view.  Needless to say, this incredibly ticks me off.  Unless I can find a solution to this problem, you will have to rely on my counterpart’s takes on the game.  Any ideas are welcome.

In other news, the Official Tideblog.com Fantasy Football League has had it’s draft.  The Tideblog.com College Football Pickoff sign-up instructions are posted on the forum.  You can still get in on the pick-off action if you hurry.  Good luck to all participants, and Roll Tide Roll!

Greetings all, from North Carolina!  Since there’s less than two months left until the season starts (finally), I thought I’d share with you my personal Pre-Season Top 25 rankings, so that you can see how mine looks in comparison with the official Tideblog.com poll. 

Rank Top 25
   1   Notre Dame
   2   Ohio St
   3   Texas
   4   LSU
   5   West Va
   6   USC
   7   Oklahoma
   8   Florida
   9   Florida St
  10   Georgia
  11   Clemson
  12   Michigan
  13   Louisville
  14   Oregon
  15   Nebraska
  16   Alabama
  17   Iowa
  18   Miami
  19   Cal
  20   Penn St
  21   TCU
  22   Auburn
  23   Arizona St
  24   Utah
  25   Va Tech
 

There are some differences between my Top 25 and the official Tideblog.com poll.  To name a few, AllBarn is ranked considerably lower, Virginia Tech just barely makes my poll, and LSU is ranked higher.  I’ll explain some of my reasoning at a later date. 

In other news, I was just told that the NY Times has finally released their “expose” of the AllBarn crowd.  I’m looking forward to finally reading this.  More of my thoughts on that subject soon.  Also, the official Tideblog.com Fantasy Football League is now under way, so be sure to sign up soon.